It advantage JioStar as brands pad up to spend on cricket

Media buyers estimate nearly ₹5,000 crore will be spent by advertisers on these cricket properties. JioStar, the new entity formed by the merger of Reliance Industries and Disney Star’s media assets in the country, stands to gain as it has the telecast rights to these tournaments for television as well as streaming

February to May 2025 is a busy season for cricket fans and advertisers in India with the ongoing Women’s Premier League (WPL) and the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy, as well the upcoming big daddy of sports – the Indian Premier League (IPL) which starts on March 22. Media buyers estimate nearly ₹5,000 crore will be spent by advertisers on these cricket properties. JioStar, the new entity formed by the merger of Reliance Industries and Disney Star’s media assets in the country, stands to gain as it has the telecast rights to these tournaments for television as well as streaming. Ahead of IPL, the company has merged its two digital platforms JioCinema and Disney+Hotstar into JioHotstar for live streaming of sports. It is also in the process of rebranding the Sports18 television channels in the network to Star Sports.

It advantage JioStar as brands pad up to spend on cricket

SBI, Kajaria, TATA Capital, Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), Himalaya No.1 Facewash, TATA Motors and Amul, among others, are WPL sponsors while Champions Trophy, played among world’s top 8 cricket teams, signed up Dream11, Pernod Ricard India, Beam Suntory, Kohler, Birla Opus, Vodafone Idea, ICICI Bank, LIC Housing Finance Limited, Eicher Motors and Indira IVF.

Sponsors and advertisers will make a beeline for IPL too despite ad rates jumping by nearly 25-30% over last year. Kumar Awanish, chief growth officer at ad agency Cheil India, said a 10-second ad spot on IPL last year which cost ₹6.5 lakh is now going for ₹8.5 lakh. “This was expected as cricket media rights both for TV and digital are now with the same company,” Awanish said.

A JioStar executive said the argument was specious and any increase in rates is adjusted for inflation. IPL brings more than 600 million viewers to the platform on digital and TV, “so what we offer is great value,” he added. “Also, two broadcasters that merged, paid billions of dollars for IPL rights and we are answerable to our shareholders and must recover some of the investment made in sports,” the executive said, declining to be quoted.

Navin Khemka, CEO, EssenceMediacom, South Asia, admitted cricket’s unparalleled reach consolidates viewership across states and markets where people consume content in different languages. “Sports has no language, so from a content point of view, it’s a great unifier,” he said.

This year, the ad rates for digital streaming on connected TV (CTV) are expected to be higher than on broadcast TV. “CTV homes have broadband at home and are early adopters of technology. Obviously, they are considered premium households, and hence more expensive,” Khemka said.

However, he cautioned that ad rates for cricket cannot be unrealistic given the market situation. When start-ups were splurging on advertising and new brands were coming in, cricket was getting completely sold out, Khemka said. But today, the ad market is soft and FMCG companies’ performance has been underwhelming. “Even our GroupM report forecasts only 7-8% growth in media spends this year. Given all this, if you want brands to associate with cricket, you have to make it work for advertisers, which means premium pricing is no longer possible,” Khemka said.

Besides advertising revenue, JioHotstar is eyeing subscription revenue too. For the last two years, IPL was free on the JioCinema app for mobile users. However, having merged JioCinema and Disney+Hotstar, JioHotstar is putting IPL behind a paywall to encash its enormous reach.

A JioStar spokesperson said a viewer will not have to buy a subscription immediately as the app allows you to sample the content before you hit a paywall. “Users can experience and engage with premium entertainment on JioHotstar, including marquee live sports such as IPL and Champions Trophy, without the immediate need of a subscription”, the person said. But for “uninterrupted and enhanced viewing experience”, mobile users will need to subscribe to its subscription plans starting at ₹149 per quarter.

Free versus paid viewing is likely to be the real test of both IPL and JioHotstar. “It remains to be seen if the paywall, even if subsidized, will impact last year’s viewership numbers,” a sports marketing expert said on condition of anonymity.

On JioStar’s monopoly over cricket, he said that market dynamics will decide its future. “Right now, it is a broadcaster’s market. But in the next 2-3 years, expect a correction in ad rates which is inevitable when the market gets overheated and IPL becomes unaffordable,” he said.